Vampire Tree
The Vampire Tree (吸血木, Kyūketsu-Ki), is a GeGeGe no Kitarō story that first appeared as a chapter of the Shonen Magazine run. It has been adapted for the 1968, 1985, 1996, 2007 and 2018 anime versions of "GeGeGe no Kitarō". The plot recycles part of the rental manga story The Vampire Tree and the Neko-Musume. The title is a play on the Japanese words for vampire (吸血鬼, kyūketsuki) and tree (木, ki). Characters *Kitarō *Medama-Oyaji *Freckled-Nosed Elder *Nobiagari Plot One night, after two months of searching, an old man finally finds Kitarō's consultation office. His village suffered an earthquake sometime ago and since then villagers have been transforming into red trees. Some believe it to be the work of a local yōkai called Nobiagari, so the old man has come to Kitarō for help. One the bus ride to the village, Kitarō sees the Nobiagari floating across the mountains, but the old man does not appear to notice it. It disappears behind a giant stone called Millennium Rock. Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji stay the night with the old man, but late at night the Nobiagari comes into the house and puts Kitarō in a deep sleep with a strange powder. Medama-Oyaji tries to fight it off but it knocks him aside and plants a seed in Kitarō's mouth. The next morning, the old man takes Kitarō to see the doctor, where they learn he has a twig sprouting from his arm. The doctor and the old man inform Kitarō that this means he will become one of the red trees now, and that there is no way to reverse it. Feeling like he has little time left, Kitarō insists on checking out Millennium Rock. At Millennium Rock, Kitarō, Medama-Oyaji and the old man see the Nobiagari slithering into a giant hole. They try to leave, but Kitarō has begun to take root. The old man returns to town to inform the mayor of what has happened. With even Kitarō's powers failing, they decide to leave the village. After three days, Kitarō's transformation is complete, and during that interval, the Nobiagari has been using hypnotic powers to cause planes to crash so it can collect more victims. Soon, a fruit begins to bloom Kitarō's tree. The mayor and the old man come to see it and it has grown the size of a person. It drops to the ground and smashes, revealing a naked and well Kitarō inside. The old man retrieves Kitarō's chanchanko and Kitarō asks if anyone knows the area around Millennium Rock well. The mayor says that his son surveyed the giant hole two years ago before leaving for college, so Kitarō asks for them to bring him, a mirror and a bucket of ashes. Kitarō and the mayor's son enter the giant hole, whereupon the mayor's son notes that the layout has changed. He attributes it to the recent earthquake just as the Nobiagari approaches them. Kitarō uses the mirror the reflect the Nobiagari's hypnotic eye and then throws the ashes at it, blinding it temporarily. He realizes that it is not Nobiagari after all, but some sort of ancient life form that was likely released by the earthquake. The creature recovers and attacks and Kitarō leads it into a lake where he uses his electric powers to shock it to death. Several days later, a large tree grows out of the lake in the giant hole, believed to be the Nobiagari's corpse. Remakes Manga *Tanoshii Yochien - Nobiagari (のびあがりのまき) *1st Grade Learning Magazine - Nobiagari (のびあがりたいじのまき) *Asahi Sonorama - GeGeGe no Kitarō/The Vampire Tree (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎／吸血木) Anime ;1968 Anime :Episode 19 - The Vampire Tree (aired May 12, 1968) ;1985 Anime :Episode 47 - Yōkai Nobiagari and the Vampire Tree (aired October 4, 1986) ;1996 Anime :Episode 109 - The Phantom of the Snowy Mountains: Nobiagari (aired February 22, 1998) ;2007 Anime :Episode 6 - Big Panic! The Yōkai Yokochō! (aired May 6, 2007) ;2018 Anime :Episode 1 - The Day the Yōkai Awoke (aired April 1, 2018) Trivia *At the time this story was originally published, Kitarō was briefly depicted as living a wanderer's life, hence the one time appearance of Kitarō's consultation office. This started with the story "Neko-Sennin", where Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji were evicted from the GeGeGe Forest. Only a couple of chapters after this one, in the story "Dai-Kaijū", he is back to living in the GeGeGe Forest. pt-br:Árvore Vampira Category:GeGeGe no Kitarō (Shonen Magazine) chapters